This chestnuts stew is healthy and nutrients-balanced, offering a typical Asian flavour. Cook in one pot and no more than 15 minutes.
Use Ready-to-Eat Chestnuts
For this kind of chestnuts stew, to be honest, I avoid using fresh chestnuts as it’s troublesome and time-consuming to deal with the peeling. So I bought vacuum-packed and cooked chestnuts at supermarket, which were actually cheaper than fresh chestnuts – 200 g costs 2.99 euros (in Germany).
My mother often cooks dishes like stewed pork ribs with chestnuts or braised chicken with chestnuts, which are super delicious. The sauce is especially good with rice, I guess it is because of the addition of a good-quality ground bean sauce.
I can’t source ground bean sauce in Germany, so I mimicked a similar Chinese sauce by using oyster sauce + soy sauce + Shaoxing wine + sugar + soaked shiitake water. It was less tangy and spicy, but it got the taste of Chinese home cooking!
Ingredients
- 100 g cooked chestnuts
- 200 g firm tofu
- 20 g dried shiitake
- small handful of soya chunks, hydrated
- 1 small carrot, sliced
- small handful of frozen beans
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 round shallot, sliced
- salt and pepper
For the Sauce
- 3 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
- 1 ½ tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 rice bowl of soaked dried shiitake water
- slurry（1 tbsp cornstarch + 1 tbsp water）
How To Make Tofu Veggies Chestnut Stew
- Soak the dried shiitake for a few hours ahead to rehydrate. Squeeze out the liquid and slice. Save that bowl of shiitake water for the sauce.
- Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan, fry the shallots and garlic until fragrant. Add shiitake, carrots and beans to stir-fry for a min, then add tofu and chestnuts with a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Put all the sauce ingredients (except the slurry) into the pan, cover and simmer for 5 mins. At last, pour in the slurry to thicken the sauce. Serve with hot steamed rice.
